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After the 6am visit and restocking of the fire I had had enough and got dressed and went outside for a walk. It was about -12C outside, so the walk consisted of a quick walk around the gir and back inside. I did re-emerge around 6:50 and walked up the ridge again looking for a shot of the sunrise. No luck. Breakfast was some bread, 2 pikelets, a fried egg and coffee. Needless to say, last nights exploits we were ready for the van to pick us up at 9am.
This morning we drove to see Turtle Rock, also in the National Park, and then drove back to UB to visit the main square of UB and also the National History museum of Mongolia. There were quite a few interesting exhibits in the museum, and we spent a large part of the morning there.
Our guide wanted to ensure that we had enough provisions for our train ride so we visited a state run department store and bought up supplies. Apparently there is no restaurant car on the leg from UB to the Russian border so we would have to get our own dinner. Of course, this meant finding a packet of instant noodles. I did wish I had John here to advise me on which brand I should choose! We grabbed lunch over the road in a grill house cafe, having sausages and mashed potato with grilled onions and gravy. We had to bolt this down as our guide wanted to ensure that we made it to the station on time; the fact that she had to get ready for a wedding at 5pm REALLY had nothing to do with it! We didn’t really have too long to wait on the platform and then we took off on our leg into Russia!
The countryside of northern Mongolia is quite different to both the Gobi Desert and the grasslands. It is a lot hillier, and we spent several hours winding ourselves through the valleys in a generally north-north-west direction. The border crossing from Mongolia took 75 minutes to complete, and the Russian one has so far taken 70.
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John Samuel Ben was the one you needed to talk to for the instant noodles advice. I basically copied his choices IIRC. :)